Morvarid Kavoosi is originally from Iran but has been living in Düsseldorf, Germany, for three years. “To be specific, three years, five months, and a few days. Not that I’m counting or anything,” she laughs. She is part of the 42% of Düsseldorf city’s population with a migrant background and the 25% with foreign nationality.
Last March, Kavoosi joined the Community Connectors, a group of volunteers that act as a bridge between the municipality and their migrant communities. She did so “because I believe that every little step counts.” Since then, she has attended regular meetings with individuals with diverse backgrounds and levels of education, all eager to participate.
To develop skills “so that we can approach people, whether they are refugees or immigrants, to be their voice, be a bridge between these groups of people” and the municipality, Kavoosi explains, the volunteers have received training from a professor from the local University of Applied Sciences.
“They are currently being trained in networking, community outreach and community research methods on a very low threshold basis as we’re not looking for professional researchers,” says Fanny Köhler, who works in the office for Migration and Integration of the city of Düsseldorf. “Instead, they are supposed to build a network and get in touch with people living in Düsseldorf who also have a migration background,” she adds.
Each member connects first with their own community, including Iranian, Ukrainian, Afghan or Russian, to build trust and gather information on the challenges these groups face. After that, they can transfer the information to those working on integration strategies in Düsseldorf. The insights gathered are “about their struggles, the problems they have, the challenges, and how the municipality can make this process easier for people to integrate and feel at home,” explains Kavoosi.
“They start taking actual surveys, more qualitative than quantitative, about specific topics that are interesting for us in the administration,” adds Köhler. “Right now, for example, this is about counselling structures, the user experience of these structures, and what people know about the counselling services we provide. Even for us professionals, some working in the field for a long time, they are sometimes confusing,” admits Köhler.
Collaborating to progress in integration
The main problem identified by Kavoosi and the team of volunteers was the difficulties migrants face in solving residence permit-related issues, which are essential for any other step in the integration process, such as finding a job or staying in Germany.
“The biggest problem here in Düsseldorf is getting an appointment for your residency. It is unbelievably difficult, no matter where you come from or what you do here. It takes months, even years,” says Kavoosi. “There are the Welcome Points and many other centres that help people. The healthcare system is amazing, and the way these people provide help is incredible, but it does not always yield results because everything takes time. You have to go through the legal paperwork process.”
Kavoosi felt the municipality was willing to help as they reached out to the Community Connectors to find out about the issue. She is excited to share that “it might take time, but it is happening so that people after us don’t have to deal with this problem.”
Another challenge that Kavoosi and the other volunteers have found is the language barrier. “There are a lot of programmes for migrant women and young people, but they are not aware of them because they are only available in German,” so the group proposed ideas for translation of the materials.
Co-learning is the origin
The Community Connectors initiative is linked to other municipal programmes, such as the permanent Municipal Integration Management, funded by the state. This programme is fed “by the knowledge we gain from working directly with people with migration backgrounds,” explains Köhler, “which includes information about gaps in structures, barriers, and problems, and feeds it back into the system, especially at the decision-making level. The goal is for decision-makers to develop solutions to make the integration process smoother and more effective.”
“We also want to link them to the Welcome Points,” Köhler continues. “The Welcome Points were part of our former Eurocities project, the VALUES project. While we don’t have a clear plan yet, these Welcome Points, which act as integration hubs in different districts of the city, are very low thresholds. Anyone can come in, spend time there, and so on. It makes sense to connect the Community Connectors with them, potentially helping them build their networks.”
The Community Connectors are part of the work within Eurocities’ UNITES project. The idea, explains Köhler, was inspired by two other cities – Coventry in England and Mörsil in Sweden.
Coventry developed ‘Community Researchers’, people with a migration history trained to become social researchers on behalf of the city. Although the programme in Coventry was more professionalised, it provided significant inspiration to Köhler’s team. Additionally, city officials in the small Swedish village of Mörsil surveyed by standing at central points like the supermarket, bakery or bank and talking directly to people passing by. Those two initiatives set the basis for the connectors in Düsseldorf.
Co-design as a successful approach to integration
Kavoosi has received some sceptical opinions about her collaboration with the municipality. She explains that sometimes people are frustrated and demotivated and ask – ‘Would they even care? Would it even change anything? Why are you this optimistic?’.
But Kavoosi is convinced that other people want to participate and that integration is a “two-way street”. “If I do not participate, how can I expect the city to provide me with something? Why would they do that?” she states.
And the best way to assess the needs and provide solutions is to work with the migrant communities through co-design. For example, the municipality had a free space and asked the connectors what a good idea for newcomers would be and how the space could be used to respond to their needs.
But also, “we want to work with them together to find out where else they want to participate, what are their questions, or what other experience can they share with us, so we can start shaping this project together instead of just saying ‘this is your task’,” says Köhler.
She notes that Düsseldorf’s structures, including her office founded in 2018, emerged in response to the challenges of 2015 and 2016, which necessitated quick problem-solving and crisis management. She emphasises that involving the people who benefit from these strategies leads to better solutions, new ideas, and a more equal experience “to not have this policy cycle to be such a top-down mode of work anymore, but rather to work with the population, the users, the beneficiaries, the inhabitants of the city and not just work for them,” she concludes.
Connecting for more diversity and inclusion
That’s why Düsseldorf is determined to have the Community Connectors as a long-term structure. Every two years, a new call for Community Connectors will be opened, and the municipality will start working with a new group.
“We want to put them in the working groups of the Municipal Integration Management so that they can have a say in the discussions or they can comment on solutions that people have elaborated together,” shares Köhler.
Not only that, but the idea is also to explore expanding the group from nine to 15 connectors in the future and ensure a wider diversity through different countries, languages and backgrounds represented in the group.
All that the city provides to migrant communities is part of showing they belong to this new city. “Refugees were forced to leave their countries and that’s painful,” explains Kavoosi. “They are dealing with more problems than those who are willingly choosing this place as their second home as they may not even have their first home anymore. So It is important to show them that this is a way, even if it’s not that bright right now, that you can be a part of this new society,” she concludes.
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This story is part of a series of articles that presents the experiences of migrants, organisations and municipalities working under Eurocities’ UNITES project, co-funded by the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF).
UNITES (UrbaN InTEgration Strategies through co-design) trains and accompanies local authorities to co-design integration strategies with other stakeholders and migrants.
UNITES works with eight cities to help them develop local integration strategies through co-design with stakeholders and migrants. In planning and implementing their actions, they will receive guidance from colleagues from other cities and migrant organisations in peer workshops and peer visits to each city.
